Beijing: A new report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has painted a grim picture of the Chinese government’s ongoing campaign to control and suppress religious activity across the country. According to the federal commission, China employs torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, high-tech surveillance, fines, and even threats against family members to assert total dominance over religious groups, including Catholics, Protestants, and other faith communities.
The USCIRF report, released this month, underscores that in 2024 “religious freedom conditions in China remained among the worst in the world.” The commission urged the U.S. Department of State to redesignate China as a “country of particular concern,” a status that could trigger sanctions, diplomatic measures, and international pressure. Since 1999, China has been almost annually flagged under this designation, reflecting decades of systematic religious repression.
Central to the report is China’s use of sophisticated surveillance tools to monitor religious gatherings and suppress independent voices. The commission highlights the deployment of “emerging technologies” to enforce ideological compliance, manipulate public narratives, and quash dissent, including targeting overseas critics through transnational repression and disinformation campaigns.
Despite a 2024 provisional agreement between China and the Vatican regarding bishop appointments, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under President Xi Jinping has intensified its “sinicization of religion” policy. This initiative compels state-sanctioned religious organizations to align their doctrines and practices with party ideology. Many worshippers, unwilling to compromise their beliefs, have been forced to hold underground religious gatherings, often at great personal risk.
The report details alarming incidents of targeted persecution. For instance, Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin of the Diocese of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, was fined $27,880 in February for celebrating Mass publicly. In March, police detained him for a week for refusing to pay the fine, and he was arrested again just before Holy Week to prevent him from celebrating Mass. Authorities reportedly pressured Shao to join the state-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, using arrests and threats against him and his supporters. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of other underground bishops, including James Su Zhimin and Joseph Zhang Weizhu, remain unknown.
Protestant communities have faced similar repression. House churches have been raided, members harassed, detained, and imprisoned on charges often described as fabricated, such as “fraud” or “subversion.” USCIRF notes that religious groups refusing state control endure pervasive persecution, enforced through “Five-Year Sinicization Work Plans” that emphasize loyalty to the CCP and strict ideological conformity.
The commission’s report also outlines recommendations for U.S. policy. It calls for the redesignation of China as a country of particular concern, sanctions against officials responsible for severe violations, and international collaboration to address the use of technology in suppressing religious freedom. It further urges Congress to legislate restrictions on Chinese use of AI and other technologies that facilitate human rights abuses, and to ban paid lobbying in the U.S. by agents representing the Chinese government.
The U.S. State Department has not immediately commented on the report. Experts say that the USCIRF findings highlight a deepening global concern over China’s efforts to control religious life, raising alarms for human rights advocates, religious communities, and international policymakers alike.
This report casts renewed attention on the perilous conditions faced by religious practitioners in China, where ideological compliance is enforced through surveillance, intimidation, and coercion, leaving faith communities with little room for independent expression or worship.